THE THIRD PART: 24 CRUCIAL LINES IN THE BIBLE

God’s Building
Message Six—Enjoying Christ as Our Prize of Life to Be Filled
unto the Fullness of God

Scripture Reading: Rev. 3:11; Isa. 28:5; Rom. 5:17, 21; John 4:14b; Psa. 36:8-9

I. Grace is God in Christ as the Spirit for our enjoyment; we must be today’s overcomers, who live in the eternal economy of God by enjoying God for the building of God—John 1:14, 17; 2 Cor. 13:14; Gal. 2:20; cf. 1 Cor. 15:10:

A. God’s eternal economy is for man to enjoy Him by eating and drinking Him so that man can grow with the growth of God for the building of God, which is the organic Body of Christ as the house of God for God’s expression and the kingdom of God for God’s administration—Gen. 1:26; 2:7-14, 22; 2 Sam. 7:13.

B. The Triune God created man according to His kind, making man in “Our image, according to Our likeness” (Gen. 1:26a) and created man with a spirit that man may enjoy God—contact God, receive God, worship God, live God, fulfill God’s purpose for God, and be one with God—2:7; Zech. 12:1.

C. God put man in Eden, a place of pleasure, indicating that God wanted to please man and make man happy by being man’s pleasure, enjoyment, amusement, entertainment, satisfaction, and everything; if you are not joyful and happy in God’s presence, it means that you are wrong with God—Rom. 14:17; Psa. 95:1; 100:1; cf. Col. 2:2.

D. After being regenerated, we have become a miniature garden of Eden—the mind of our soul represents our person, sin in our flesh represents Satan, and the Spirit in our spirit represents God; we are either in our spirit or in our flesh; there is no third place to be—“the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the spirit is life and peace”—Rom. 8:6; 7:22; 8:2, 16.

E. God put man in the garden of Eden to work it for the expression of God and to keep it by the authority of God—Gen. 2:15; 1:26:

1. The ground typifies the human heart, into which Christ as the seed of the tree of life has been sown; to work the ground signifies to loosen and break our hard heart, to open our heart to the heavens so that the Spirit as the rain may water us for the growth of God in us—Luke 8:15; Isa. 55:8-11.

2. To work the ground is to open ourselves to the tree of life; to keep the ground is to close ourselves to the tree of knowledge—2 Cor. 11:2-3; Rom. 8:6; cf. Lev. 5:2.

II. The pathway of God for the building of God, the way of Philadelphia, brings us back to God’s original intention so that we may overcome to live in the eternal economy of God by enjoying God in Christ as our prize, our reward, our crown, for His building—Rev. 3:11; Phil. 3:8, 14:

A. The overcomers have learned the secret of enjoying the crucified Christ as the reality of the bronze altar to be their nest for their refuge and the secret of enjoying the resurrected Christ in ascension as the reality of the golden incense altar to be their home for their rest—Psa. 84:3-7, 10-12; 43:4a; cf. Phil. 4:11-13.

B. The offerings, typifying the unsearchably rich Christ, were both God’s enjoyment and the serving priests’ enjoyment; our only reward for our priestly service is Christ as everything to us—Num. 18:9, 31; Mark 9:7-8; 1 Cor. 1:9.

C. Christ Himself as the flowing Triune God is our enjoyment, our prize, our exceedingly great reward, our crown; we must continually receive Him as our superabounding grace so that grace may reign in us for us to reign in life and become the totality of the eternal life, the New Jerusalem—Gen. 15:1; Rom. 5:17, 21; John 4:14b; Psa. 36:8-9; Rev. 22:1-2a:

1. As grace reigns in us, we are under the ruling of the grace of life, and we reign over Satan, sin, and death to practice the Body life for the crushing of Satan under our feet—Rom. 5:21; 8:2; 12:1-3; 16:20.

2. We must continually come forward to the throne of grace that we may receive mercy and find grace for timely help; we must come to the ruling Lamb-God as the divine source and open ourselves from the depths of our being to be filled with Him as grace—Heb. 4:16; Rev. 22:1; John 1:16.

3. The more we have a clear sky, a clear fellowship with the Lord, in the fellowship of the Body, the more we are under His throne, causing us to become the heavenly electrical lines to transmit the heavenly throne of God’s ruling presence to the earth—Ezek. 1:22, 26; Rev. 22:1-3; 1 Kings 10:18; Rom. 5:17; Matt. 24:14.

D. The wonderful Christ enjoyed by us as the power of resurrection and as the shining forth of God to be our overcoming strength for the expression of Christ as life is our crown, our prize, our reward—Gen. 15:1; Hymns, #208—chorus:

1. “I come quickly; hold fast what you have that no one take your crown”— Rev. 3:11; cf. Psa. 103:1-4.

2. “In that day Jehovah of hosts / Will become a crown of beauty and a diadem of glory to the remnant of His people”—Isa. 28:5; cf. Exo. 28:2.

3. “Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life”—Rev. 2:10b; cf. James 1:12b; 1 Cor. 8:1-3.

4. “Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, with which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will recompense me in that day, and not only me but also all those who have loved His appearing”—2 Tim. 4:8.

5. “You shall place the turban on his head and put the holy crown on the turban” (Exo. 29:6; cf. Lev. 8:9); “you shall make a plate of pure gold and engrave upon it, like the engravings of a signet: HOLINESS TO JEHOVAH” (Exo. 28:36).

6. “Shepherd the flock of God among you,…and when the Chief Shepherd is manifested, you will receive the unfading crown of glory”—1 Pet. 5:2, 4.

7. “Do you not know that those who run on a racecourse all run, but one receives the prize? Run in this way, that you may lay hold. And everyone who contends exercises self-control in all things; they then, that they may receive a corruptible crown, but we, an incorruptible”—1 Cor. 9:24-25.

E. All of the above reveal that when we enjoy Christ as our prize of life, He is dispensed into our entire tripartite being so that His unsearchably rich divine attributes of righteousness, holiness, and glory become our human virtues to make us the eternal poem of God for the radiant expression of God—Gen. 3:24; 1 Cor. 1:30; Rom. 5:10; 1 John 3:2; Eph. 2:10; Rev. 21:10-11.

III. We need to be filled unto the fullness of God to express the reality of the Body of Christ—Eph. 3:16-20; 5:18; 1 Cor. 6:17:

A. The secret of being filled unto the fullness of God is absolutely a matter of the Spirit in our spirit, the mingled spirit—Eph. 3:16-20; 5:18.

B. This is not a matter of feeling but a matter in faith—2 Cor. 4:13; Psa. 116:10a; cf. v. 13.

C. For anyone who is one spirit with the Lord, the supply is inexhaustible—1 Cor. 6:17; Phil. 1:19; 4:23.

IV. The consummate expression of the fullness—the New Jerusalem—has the glory of God—Rev. 21:11; 4:3:

A. The New Jerusalem is the ultimate expression of the church as the fullness of God to express God’s glory.

B. The content of the city is God Himself as the fullness of God; the appearance of the city is also God Himself as the glory of God.

C. The believers being glorified is for God’s consummate expression—Rom. 8:30, 21:

1. The glory that will ultimately be manifested is the consummate expression of God, which is the effulgence of His glory—Heb. 1:3.

2. In that glory we will be the fullness of God expressing the Triune God for eternity.

 

Ministry Excerpts:

THE GRACE OF GOD

Now we must ask a crucial question: what is grace? When I was young, I was taught by some great teachers that grace means that we do nothing and that God does everything for us. According to this teaching, anything we do is work, not grace, but whatever the Lord does for us is grace. For example, there is no need for us to do anything for our sins. If we do this, it is our work. The Lord Jesus died on the cross for our sins, and that is grace. Are you satisfied with this definition of grace? For a while, I was satisfied with it. But as a result of considering certain verses in the Bible, I began to question it. John 1:17 says that grace came through Jesus Christ, and John 1:16 says, “Of His fullness we all received, and grace upon grace” (Recovery Version). In 1 Corinthians 15:10 the Apostle Paul says, “By the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I but the grace of God which was with me.” One day, as I was comparing this verse with Galatians 2:20 where Paul says, “Not I, but Christ liveth in me,” I realized that grace is just God in Christ dispensed into our being for our enjoyment in our experience. It is not only the work the Lord does for us; it is the Triune God Himself dispensed into our being and experienced as our enjoyment. In brief, grace is the Triune God experienced by us.

According to the entire revelation of the New Testament, grace is nothing less than God in Christ dispensed into our being for our enjoyment. Firstly, He is dispensed into our spirit, and then, as He spreads into our inward parts, He becomes our enjoyment. This grace has come to us through Christ (John 1:14, 17), and it is the grace of Christ (2 Cor. 13:14; 12:9), even Christ Himself (Gal. 6:18; cf. 2 Tim. 4:22) (Life-study of Hebrews, msg. 52)

A PROFOUND CONCEPT IN THE BIBLE

The Bible contains a very profound thought that cannot be fathomed or perceived without revelation: God wants to enter into man to be man’s life so that He and man may have the same life, the same nature, and the living of the same kind of being—a God-man. This is neither a religious notion nor a moral concept.

God created man to be a vessel for Himself. Man is God’s vessel to contain God. Regardless of how noble and excellent you may be, you are nevertheless just a vessel for God. Only God should be your content. If you do not have God’s life and nature and if you are not filled with God, you are an empty vessel, and your human life, your living, your feeling, and your activities are all vain. They come to nothing. This is what God has planned and ordained for man.

THE WAY TO ACHIEVE GOD’S PURPOSE

How can God achieve His purpose? Consider the physical symbols. In order for something, such as chicken, to come into us to be our element and to be one with us, we have to eat it, digest it, and assimilate it. This is the way that it becomes our blood, our cells, and our essence.

With a view to this, the Lord said, “I am the bread of life…He who eats Me, he also shall live because of Me” (John 6:48, 57b). Only by eating the Lord can we receive God into us as our content. Not only do we need to understand, apprehend, know, love, believe, follow, and worship the Lord; even more we need to eat Him.

THE LINE OF EATING IN THE BIBLE

God’s desire for man is that man may eat Him. After God created man, He did not tell him to do anything. Instead, He placed Himself before man in the form of food to be received by man. God is edible for man to take Him in. He wants to enter into us, not only to be our life but also to be our continuing life supply.

The line of eating is consistent throughout the whole Bible. From the first two chapters of Genesis to the last chapter of Revelation, the matter of eating is repeatedly referred to. When the children of Israel were leaving Egypt, they had to eat the lamb. In the wilderness they ate the manna. After they entered into Canaan, they ate the rich produce of the land. When they offered sacrifices in their worship to God, they ate the various offerings. When the Lord Jesus came, He said that He is the bread of life and that we have to eat Him and enjoy Him. Even in the Lord’s table meetings when we remember the Lord, our emphasis should not be on meditation and worship but on eating. Concerning the bread, He told the disciples, “Take, eat; this is My body” (Matt. 26:26b). Moreover, He said, “Do this in remembrance of Me” (Luke 22:19b). Therefore, the true remembrance of the Lord is eating, which is for us to exercise our spirit to receive the Lord into us again and again. The more we eat and drink the Lord, the more real our worship to Him is. True worship is for us to open our inner being to the Lord for Him to fill and saturate us more.

THE LORD CALLING OVERCOMERS
TO OVERCOME DEGRADED CHRISTIANITY

The book of Revelation is neither for preaching the gospel nor for teaching doctrine. In Revelation the Lord gives a second call, a call to overcome. To overcome here is not to overcome our temper or to overcome sin and the world but to overcome degraded Christianity. The Lord’s call is directed to the situation of fallen Christendom. The church in Ephesus was very good in that she labored for the Lord with zeal and diligence. Nevertheless, the Lord told her to repent, for although she labored for Him, she did not love Him enough; although she did many things for Him, she did not enjoy Him sufficiently. The overcomers must overcome these conditions. The Lord wants us to enjoy Him. He said, “To him who overcomes, to him I will give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the Paradise of God” (2:7b). Right at the beginning this eating of the tree of life was there; it was the first thing, but it has been lost. Now the Lord is calling us to enjoy this matter of eating once again.

The Lord’s recovery is to recover what He ordained in the beginning. God ordained that man should eat Him, and this would become man’s destiny. Our lot is not to do this or that but to eat the Lord. For forty years in the wilderness the Israelites did nothing but gather manna and eat it every day. Eating was their occupation. Likewise, today God wants us to eat and enjoy Christ every day. It is not how much we do for the Lord but rather how much we eat the Lord. This is the Lord’s recovery.

One can never graduate from eating. Every day there is a repetition of eating. Hardships from husbands, problems from wives, and difficulties on the job can all be dealt with by eating Christ. When you eat Christ a little more, your problem will be solved. This way might seem to be too simple, but once you enter in, you will find that the more you eat Him, the sweeter He is, and the more you enjoy Him, the richer He becomes.

The Bible is a book on eating. Christians must be an eating people, and the churches must be eating churches. The brothers should eat and so should the sisters. The older ones should eat and so should the younger ones. Everyone should be eating.

The end of the book of Revelation says, “Blessed are those who wash their robes that they may have right to the tree of life” (22:14). This blessing is for those who come to the tree of life. Thus, ultimately man is destined to eat the tree of life, that is, to eat the Lord. Man will eat the Lord for eternity.

To be sure, after a person is fed, he will work. Well-fed children are very active and may even act like a destroying army. Therefore, we must first feed ourselves and then feed others. When everyone is fed, the church will be living. It is not a matter of doing things outwardly but of being alive inwardly. When we are filled by eating Christ, we become energetic. Today we do not need mere outward encouragement; we need only the inward supply.

NOT TEACHING BUT LIFE

In Revelation 2 and 3, eating is given as a promise in a positive way, while teaching is mentioned numerous times in a negative way. Eating is versus teaching. The Lord hates teaching. Perhaps you will say that the Lord does not hate correct teachings. However, how do you know which are the correct teachings? Every teaching is apparently correct. Counterfeit money appears the same as the real money; otherwise, no one would be fooled. Everyone who teaches wrong doctrine teaches it in a way so that it looks real. If you do not want to be a victim of counterfeit money, the best way is not to accept money but gold. Do not listen to any doctrine; only care for Christ. Doctrines may help us to comprehend and understand, but they cannot supply us.

Even biblical doctrines, without the Spirit in them and without Christ as their reality, are empty teachings. For example, concerning husbands loving their wives, you may have the doctrinal knowledge but not the ability to love. However, if you enjoy the living Christ by pray-reading, you can love your wife without exerting your own will. The words of the Holy Scriptures are spirit and are life. Therefore, when we are reading the Scriptures, we must call on the Lord and touch the Spirit to receive the supply.

In the Lord’s recovery we must practice calling on the Lord. When we call on the Lord, our spirit is opened, and when we breathe the Spirit in as air, we are refreshed and enlightened within. In the New Jerusalem there is only one tree of life yielding fruit for us to eat; everyone there will simply be eating daily. The church in Ephesus became degraded because she neglected the eating and was devoted to working. The Lord told her to repent. The elders and co-workers should not consider too much about how to work; they should take the lead to eat. Let us all come to keep the feast, come and dine together. What is the Lord’s recovery? Eating! What is the Lord’s way? Eating! What is it to be overcoming? Eating! What is it to be spiritual? Eating! Eating! Eating! Eating! (The Lord’s Recovery of Eating, msg. 1)

PAUL, THE PATTERN

In verse 7 [of 2 Timothy chapter 4] Paul mentions three items: fighting the good fight, finishing the course, and keeping the faith. A proper Christian life is threefold. It involves fighting the good fight against Satan and his kingdom of darkness for the interests of God’s kingdom (1 Tim. 6:12), running the course for the carrying out of God’s economy according to His eternal purpose (Heb. 12:1), and keeping the faith for participation in the divine riches in God’s dispensation (Gal. 3:22). In this Paul set up an adequate pattern for us.

Paul began to run the course of the heavenly race after he was taken possession of by the Lord, and he continually ran (1 Cor. 9:24-26; Phil. 3:12-14) that he might finish it (Acts 20:24). Now at the end he triumphantly proclaimed, “I have finished the course.” For this he will receive from the Lord a reward—the crown of righteousness (v. 8).

Paul could testify that he had kept the faith. This means that he kept God’s New Testament economy. To keep the faith is to keep the entire New Testament economy of God— the faith concerning Christ as the embodiment of God and the mystery of God and the church as the Body of Christ and the mystery of Christ.

THE REWARD—THE INCENTIVE

Verse 8 says, “Henceforth, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me in that day; and not only to me, but also to all those who have loved His appearing.” The crown is a symbol of glory given as a prize, in addition to the Lord’s salvation, to the triumphant runner of the race (1 Cor. 9:25). This prize is neither of grace nor by faith as salvation is (Eph. 2:5, 8-9), but of righteousness through works (Matt. 16:27; Rev. 22:12; 2 Cor. 5:10). Such a reward will be awarded the believers not according to the grace of the Lord, but according to His righteousness. Hence, it is the crown of righteousness. The One who awards it is the Lord as the righteous Judge, not as the merciful God or the gracious Redeemer. Paul was assured that such a prize was reserved, laid up, for him and would be awarded to him at the day of the Lord’s second appearing. Paul says that such an award will be given to all who love the Lord’s appearing. The Lord’s appearing, His coming back, is a warning, an encouragement, and an incentive to us. We should love it and look forward to it with earnest expectation and joy. By it, the apostle charged Timothy to fulfill his ministry (vv. 1-2, 5).

The crown of righteousness of which Paul was assured is the incentive to the inoculator. If we are faithful to the healthy word of the truth and if we are faithful inoculators to dispense the ingredients of the divine inoculation into Christians today that they may return to the full knowledge of the truth, this reward will be given to us at the time of the Lord’s appearing. This means that if we are faithful to the Lord’s ministry, we shall receive the crown of righteousness as our reward.

There is a great deal of talk among Christians today concerning the Lord’s second coming. But not many believers realize that when the Lord Jesus comes back, He will not come as the merciful God or as the gracious Savior, but as the righteous Judge. Christians should be warned and encouraged to prepare themselves to stand before this Judge. I hope that many among us will take up the burden in this dark age to bring such a solemn charge to the Lord’s people. We all need to receive this charge before God and before the Lord Jesus, the One who will judge the living and the dead. We must declare the fact that when the Lord comes back, He will be the Judge of all, both believers and unbelievers. According to Matthew 25, all of the Lord’s servants will have to give an account to Him. The Lord will either say, “Well done, good and faithful slave” (v. 21), or, “Evil and slothful slave” (v. 26). In His righteousness the Lord will decide whether or not we receive a reward.

Because the Lord’s coming and His kingdom are solemn matters, Paul gave a serious charge to Timothy in 4:1-8. We should not think that the Lord’s appearing will merely be a time of rapture and excitement. It will also be a time of great solemnity for every believer in Christ. This was the reason Paul charged Timothy by the Lord’s appearing and His kingdom. May we all give heed to this solemn warning. (Life-study of 2 Timothy, msg. 7)

THE FULLNESS OF THE ONE WHO FILLS ALL IN ALL

The Body of Christ is His fullness. The fullness of Christ issues from the enjoyment of the riches of Christ (3:8). Through the enjoyment of Christ’s riches, we become His fullness to express Him. This is the fullness of the One who fills all in all. Christ, who is the infinite God without limitation, is so great that He fills all things in all things. Such a great Christ needs the church to be His fullness for His complete expression.

It is in the transmission that the Body of Christ is the fullness of the One who fills all in all, because the Christ who fills all in all is in the transmission. The transmission connects us to the all-filling Christ. In this way the church becomes all-filling Christ. By means of such a transmission, we are the Body, the fullness of the One who fills all in all. The Body comes from the transmission of the all-inclusive Christ. To enjoy this transmission we need a sober mind, a fervent emotion, a submissive will, and a pure conscience. Through the experience of this transmission we become the Body. What we need today is more of this all-inclusive transmission. (The Conclusion of the New Testament, msg. 194)